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We grabbed the opportunity to catch up with UFC star Brad Pickett ahead of his fight with Urijah Faber on the main card of UFC Fight Night: Sacramento.
How did this fight with Urijah Faber happen?
Basically, I got this phone call about a week after my last fight from Sean Shelby. He was just talking to me about how unhappy I was about my last fight and I didn’t perform very well but also, I hated fighting a southpaw basically all that type of stuff, getting my violin out and moaning. Then he was like "Hey do you want to fight Urijah Faber" and I was like hell yeah! He said it's in his hometown and all that type of stuff and I said yeah 100 percent. Obviously I wanted to get back in there as soon as I could just to get that last performance behind me because it sucked. I've lost fights in my career but I've never had a fight where I've not had the chance to do anything. I just wanted to get back in there and put that behind me.
Any prediction for the fight?
Well this fight is a very exciting one for me, fighting Urijah Faber a legend of the sport but I think we match up very well, I believe that I am more dangerous than him in certain areas. But he has good submissions and stuff. I mean it's actually just a fun fight anywhere is goes we will compete well in any area. I'm looking forward to getting in there with him.
You are fighting away from home in front of his home crowd how does this feel and will it affect you?
I think it will be good for me. Throughout my career most of the time I've always been in my hometown quite a lot and in England and obviously I enjoy that. I have a lot of fans no matter where I go. I'm very respectful so I never normally get a lot of shit from fans or anything like that, but I hope I get a little bit. I wouldn’t mind being a villain for once. I remember going to Sacramento before when Mike Thomas Brown fought Urijah Faber, I was in Mike Brown's corner and when he came out to the fight it was so hostile he was getting booed so much and getting so much abuse. I got quite angry with that, I was a bit annoyed I was like hey he's such a great guy and respectful and nice and everyone's giving him so much shit. It kind of fired me up and I wanted to fight there and then. So part of me wouldn’t mind getting a hostile reception as I think it will fire me up.
You are the underdog for this fight does this affect the way you approach the fight?
It doesn’t affect my approach in any way whatsoever but what it does do is take a lot of pressure off me. At the moment it's all about him, it's about his retirement, fighting in his hometown, his last fight and he's the favourite so all eyes are on him, where I can slide a little bit under the radar and just concentrate on myself and the fight, where he's concentrating on a lot of different things, a lot of things are happening with him, he's very busy. All I'm doing is concentrating on this fight which I think mentally this is going to help me in a lot of ways. All I'm there to do is to turn up and spoil his party.
As you know this will be Urijah Faber's last fight what o you make of his MMA career?
Urijah Faber has been a absolute legend within the weight classes, a bit of a poster boy. I've met him so many times on the scene and chatted with him he's a nice guy, we get on very well. He is also a very good businessman outside of the cage and done very well with his career. He's promoted himself very well and he's helped the sport grow a lot. For me it’s an honour to fight someone like Urijah Faber. We could've crossed paths many of times I guess throughout our careers. I'm glad we at least get to duke it out before he retires.
What's next for you and your career?
Basically, I don't know. Obviously I try not to think about too many things when I have a fight booked. I always take each fight as it comes. Personally I'll be looking to fight hopefully on the London card as well. That’s what I'll be looking to do but obviously like I say I don’t want to look too far ahead. I just want to get this fight out the way.
What are your thoughts about the MMAAA?
To be honest, it's hard for me to talk about it too much because I don’t know much about it. I think if it's going to benefit the fighters then I'm all for it. It's one of those ones that time will tell how good or bad it could be. The same thing as like the takeover with the UFC's new owners, time tells. As you can see now there has been a lot of changes over the past few months that keep happening. So I think time will tell but hopefully in the long run it will definitely benefit the fighters.
